FEATURED VIDEO

A personalized planner is a blank slate system that allows you to tweak and adapt it to fit your needs and help YOU. Life as Mom contributor, Prerna, explains why you need one. One of the first things I did when I discovered blogs and organizing solutions was to create a home management binder. My most successful […]

Organize Your Life as MOM

How do you know if you should stay home full-time? A reader wrote in with this question, one that I thought could benefit from a range of perspectives and answers. I’d love to hear your advice for this young mom on how you decided to become a stay at home mom or why not. I […]

GET THE EBOOK

Brave Writer Help for High School is one of the new items of homeschool curriculum that we’re using this year. I’m excited for my teen boys to go through this self-paced course. This post is sponsored by Brave Writer. I have been compensated for my time spent writing as well as given sample product. For the […]

Frugal Food: Taco Soup

Jenn@FrugalUpstate is continuing her Frugal Food series. This week’s feature is ground beef.

The following is a FishBoy favorite. They absolutely love it! And even though it’s summer time and hot and humid and buggy and sticky, I keep getting requests for this meal. Go figure.

I’ve tweaked this from the original to suit my family’s tastes and budget. The original called for several packaged mixes; I’ve just subbed my own spices. What’s SO wonderful about this is that it cooks in the crockpot and a 5 year old can put it together for you. I open the cans, and he does the rest. How easy is that?!

Recipe: Taco Soup

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef or turkey, browned and drained

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 can hominy, drained (optional)

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can pinto beans, drained

2 cans black beans, drained

1 cup red enchilada sauce (we like Las Palmas)

1 -2 cups water (depending on how thick you like your soup/chili)

1 T. oregano

1 T. onion powder

1 T. dried parsley

1 t. garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

Toppings: salsa, grated cheese, sour cream

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in crock pot.

Cook for at least 4 hours on high. Serve with toppings.

To freeze: cool the soup and store in meal- or individual-sized portions in the freezer, for up to 2 months. Reheat before serving.

That sounds sooo good! I love to get recipes that I couldn’t potentially burn (and fill the house with that awful burnt oven smell along with the fire alarms beeping your eardrums off!)–with 3kids 5 and under, I seem to doing a lot of that lately! Crock pots just rock.

This sounds really good! I have one that my family loves that uses Ranch dressing mix and taco seasoning – and it’s also quick, but I just might try your version! The enchilada sauce sounds intriguing!

Suzof7, the original that I tweaked had ranch dressing and taco seasoning. Those are too rich for my budget, so I substituted the other spices. FishPapa likes food with a kick, so I added the enchilada sauce – Las Palmas is our favorite.

This looks so delicious! We like taco soup, but this looks like it’d be better. My 11-year old daughter helped me analyze the cost of packaged taco seasoning versus making our own and so now she is my taco seasoning maker! Healthier and frugal!

I make taco soup as well. In fact, it’s our go-to meal for busy nights. I use taco seasoning that I buy at Sam’s Club – huge bottle – that’s MSG free. I use dried beans that I cook and freezer, corn, and I also stopped using ranch seasoning packet and instead just add the individual spices – parsley, onion powder, salt, whatever I have on hand. It’s easy and delicious. Here’s my recipe: http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2011/11/taco-soup-my-go-to-meal.html

Welcome to Life as MOM! I'm FishMama, chief cook and bottle washer around here. I have six kids under 18, and I've lived to tell the tale. Want to know how to make the most out of what you have where you are? You've come to the right place.

Archives

RECENT POSTS

Disclaimer

Please note that the advertisements posted here do not necessarily represent FishMama's views and opinions.
Also be advised that some of these advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site (when you click through). I have no control over this. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices.